Black Belt.ie

• Kempo
• (Kosho Ryu)
• Origin : - Japan

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• Kosho Ryu Ken/mpo is a philosophical art much like Jeet Kune Do but with a Zen influences...lots of mind science material and healing arts.

  It is not a style of compiled kata or specific techniques.. it is a study of all motion and therefore cannot be stylised to look like a specific teacher or animal movement.

  Thus, this writeup will discuss only the history of the art.

• Kosho Shorei Kempo was created by several happenings, spanning a period of centuries. According to Mitose Sensei, during the invasion of Genghis Khan, the Head Monk of the Shaolin Temple fled China and found refuge with the Mitose family.

  In appreciation for the kindness of the Mitose's, he taught them Shaolin Chuan Fa (Shorinji Kempo in Japanese). From James Mitose's book:

• "Fifteen hundred years ago, the ancestor (of the Author) was a Shinto priest. He studied and taught many different martial arts including sword fighting, lance fighting, fighting with the bow and arrow, fighting on horseback, and swim fighting.

  Some arts looked like Kempo, Karate, Gongfu, and Ju-jitsu- but they were different in many ways.

  He mastered all of these arts and became Grand Master. Then Grand Master Mitose founded a martial arts school and called his style Mitose's Martial Art School."

• In 1235 a Shinto priest whom James Mitose called his first ancestor became enlightened to what we call Kempo. According to Mitose, this man was a martial arts master and a Buddhist monk studying at Shaka-In who found it difficult to be both.

  His religion taught him pacifism; his martial art taught him destruction. He pondered this dilemma under an old pine tree meaning Kosho in Japanese. He became enlightened and was from then on known as, Kosho Bosatsu, the Old Pine Tree Enlightened One.

  He discovered the relationship between man and Nature and also the secret of the Escaping Arts which is what makes Kempo a True and Pure Kempo or study of all Natural Law through a Martial Arts medium.

  Then "the Grand Master founded the Kosho Shorei Temple of Peace, True Self Defense and Kosho Shorei Yoga School. At that time, he made up the Coat of Arms and the Motto for his Temple. In his Temple, he taught how to escape from being harmed by using the escaping patterns, with God's help."